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Man Who Stole Einstein's Brain, The (2023)

Posted: 01/22/24 19:48
by bunniefuu
- Tom harvey has been very much

An enigmatic,

mysterious character.

- He was a little bit secretive

About having einstein's brain

in his apartment.

- I mean, he was no hero,

but I don't think

He did anything with

evil intentions.

- Bottom line, he was to protect

that brain, and he did.

- Tom harvey turned out

to be the man who really

Set in motion the immortal

afterlife of einstein's brain.

(mysterious music)

(whirring)

(mysterious music)

- Tom harvey is a very

mysterious fellow,

And his motivations

are not understood.

There was high expectations

in tom's family

For high achievement,

in professional terms.

He had a great-grandfather

that was a doctor

And a grandfather

who was a judge.

It was sort of a given

that he would, you know,

Do something like that,

doctoring or lawyering,

And so he went to yale

for medical school,

And he had always hoped

to be a pediatrician.

(birds chirping)

- Einstein in 1905, he's

a patent clerk, second class,

And he rips off five

of these earth-shattering,

paradigmatic articles.

You know, the annus mirabilis

Where you're finding out

e equals mc squared,

And special relativity. I mean,

for a patent clerk in bern,

Just rattling off these papers.

And then, ten years later,

learning enough mathematics

That he could come up with the

theory of general relativity.

What was going on

in this guy's head

That he could think

of stuff like that?

- Tom harvey was partly through

medical school at yale

And he developed tuberculosis,

And in those days,

to treat tuberculosis,

They thought fresh air

was the cure,

So they had him set up

at the gaylord sanatorium.

(man coughing)

Which was just this place

where young people were living

All year-round,

no matter the temperature,

And it could get cold.

And he described shivering

Out there and really having

a renegotiation

With religion during that time.

(laughing)

And it also turned out

to be where he met

His first wife, elouise,

And she was a nursing student.

When they both recovered, they

got married shortly after that.

- Einstein came up with the

general theory of relativity,

But it was based on many

scientists before him

Who had come up

with the building blocks

For the theory of relativity.

And then, like a spark

of lightning,

He finished the equation

and he made it famous,

And boom, he's on the cover

of the new york times.

You know, he's time magazine's

person of the century.

(boar horn honking)

(camera shutter clicking)

- When he comes

to the united states

And he's mobbed at new york

Where there was a huge

jewish population,

You know, they were yelling out

to him like he was the messiah.

He was a great jew.

And he thought this was

totally ridiculous.

After the seizure of power

by hitler in January 1933,

He was removed from his position

At the prussian academy

of sciences.

So einstein moved

to the united states.

He said, "I'm never returning."

(indistinct chatter)

(expl*si*n)

- the w*r broke out,

And this was difficult for tom

because he was a quaker.

And quakers are pacifists.

So instead of fighting

on the b*ttlefield,

He signed up to work

in an army pathology lab.

In very quick succession,

elouise and tom had three sons.

(baby crying)

by the time the w*r was over,

It was pretty clear to tom

that he could go back

And be a resident and try

to become a pediatrician,

But it would be pretty hard

to house and feed the family

On a resident's salary.

Whereas if he went

into pathology,

Which he sort of already

had this grounding in

during the w*r,

He could get paid fairly well.

(woman): Yeah.

- Princeton had its virtues.

My father, he was a pathologist.

It was an unusual kind of

upbringing, in that regard,

Surrounded by organs and,

you know, bits and pieces

Of humanity.

And I guess one of the most

dramatic recollections

I have of him when I was tiny,

He took me to watch him

do an autopsy.

(chuckling)

I didn't quite know

what to think about that

For a long time, but you know,

He seemed so calm

about the whole process

That I just tried

to absorb it and enjoy it.

(man): At princeton university

lives new jersey's

Most famous foreign-born

citizen,

Professor albert einstein.

- Albert einstein came

to princeton in '33.

Only good stories.

The stories of, you know,

Helping kids with their

homework, they're legit.

They've actually followed up

some of those.

Even though he had

this statement about,

"it's a funny little town

with gods on stilts,"

But... I think

he liked the town.

(dog barking)

(giggling)

- Oh, well, the basement

was interesting.

(eerie music)

It was an anatomical museum

of a sort, you know,

With organs and...

Organs that I couldn't identify.

You know, some of them

were clearly brains.

It was very strange, and

it was a real source of wonder

To friends that we would

bring over and take downstairs.

We should've charged money.

I could've been a very...

(laughing)

...Very well-off child.

- Einstein was an interesting

man of contradictions.

On the one hand,

he really didn't care

What people thought about him.

He would walk around princeton

In his pyjamas.

He had dishevelled hair,

he didn't wear socks.

He was a man of very few

social graces.

And so, he really didn't care

what people thought about him.

And I think that's what made him

so popular with people.

It was kind of this, you know,

doing the opposite

Is what made him popular.

Being authentic is what

made him popular.

- Tom harvey was always

interested in making

Some kind of meaningful

contribution to science

and society.

You know, when the boys

were young, he would team up

With this cast of characters

to conduct these experiments

In his yard and his garage.

- An armenian doctor that had

lost his laboratory,

He was looking

for cures to cancer.

He wanted to use our garage

and my father said sure.

And it turned out he was using

chickens for his lab subjects.

It was quite peculiar

for a while.

- The holy grail for einstein

was the theory of everything.

The idea of saying, can you

reconcile quantum mechanics,

Electromagnetism with gravity,

A theory that explains

everything?

And to his dying day,

And that's not an expression

I use loosely.

When he died on April 18th, '55,

There were five or six pages

of handwritten manuscript

Where he was still

trying to come up

With a mathematical synthesis

of the theory of everything.

(man): Doctor albert einstein

came to america with his wife

To escape n*zi persecution.

His mathematical wizardry

led to the atomic age.

He received highest honors,

But lived quietly at princeton,

new jersey.

There, death came to albert

einstein. He was 76.

- So, einstein died

at princeton hospital

At about one o'clock in the

morning on April 18th, 1955,

And somewhere

in the middle of that night

between that and dawn,

A call came to tom harvey's

house from the hospital,

And it was einstein's doctor,

guy dean,

And he said basically, "tom,

you should get over here."

(laughing)

"einstein died last night,

And we'd like you

to do the autopsy.

You should come in first thing

and get to it."

(dishes clinking)

- Well, I remember sitting

around the kitchen table

And the subject came up.

And, of course, I had no idea

what really, you know,

It portended in terms of what

was going to happen

In terms of my father's career.

(bicycle bell ringing)

- Tom harvey got ready for work

that morning and walked,

As he often did, from

his home on jefferson street

To the hospital.

(laughing)

- At that point, I think there

was a realization on his part

That all of his ambitions,

which, on many levels,

Had been thwarted

for his career,

Were now leading him

to this moment.

He was going to be

the pathologist, the one,

As the chief pathologist

of princeton hospital,

To perform the autopsy

on albert einstein,

The genius of the modern age.

- He does the autopsy.

In the 50s, they did that,

And he would've set to work.

- And then he did something

that was off the script,

And he basically takes a saw

to remove the skull,

Reaches in, grabs the brain...

- When I asked him

in the autopsy suite

Why he decided to take

albert einstein's brain,

He said, quite unequivocally,

You know, that this was

the brain of a genius,

And he would've felt ashamed

if he left it.

(jazzy music)

This was the 50s, you know,

a high time for science.

You know, color televisions

and antibiotics

And dna structure

had just been discovered.

There was a whole lot of hubris

around science at that time.

Could we find the source

of genius? Of course we can!

We just have to look

at albert einstein's brain.

So for tom, in that moment,

This brain represents

all of his ambitions

To make a meaningful

contribution to science.

The president of the hospital

at that time wasn't a doctor

But a really ambitious

businessman by the name

of jack kaufmann,

And he was really keen that,

You know, not only would they

do the einstein autopsy,

But that princeton hospital

would hold on to that brain.

And he was happy that tom harvey

then went out after the autopsy

And announced this to the press,

'cause it put them on the map.

- I don't know how the media

found out about it,

But there's a photograph

of him, there's sort of

wrought iron veranda.

It's on the ground level of

the princeton medical center,

And he's talking

to the reporters.

- And the problem came

the next day

When einstein's family reads

about it in the new york times

That einstein's brain

did not get cremated

with the rest of him.

That's when things go sideways.

- I mean, I understand that

members of einstein's family

Were very concerned

about what had happened

And whether or not my father

should have the brain,

And I don't know all the factors

in his decision,

But I trusted my father

and his judgement.

- Somehow, harvey had a

conversation with otto nathan,

Fellow migr

and einstein's executor,

And hans albert, his son,

And convinced them that this

is a unique specimen.

You know, a genius for the ages,

and a man of science.

And I'm told his son

went for it,

And then pretty much

the executor, otto nathan,

had to go along with it.

He said, "okay, go ahead

and study it."

- Dear dr. Harvey...

- And tom makes this promise,

This oath which really

would outlast every other

he made in his life,

Which was that he would save

the brain for scientific study

And that it would only be used

for scientific research,

And that anything about it,

any publicity about it

Would only appear in scientific

or medical journals.

That it would not become

the object of layperson's

fascination,

Or to quote einstein,

who really didn't want people

To come and worship

at his bones.

So, that was tom harvey's

promise.

(soft music)

- This was a violation

of einstein the man,

Einstein the body

in such a visceral way,

And so I find it hard

to believe that anyone would say

Thomas harvey was doing

the right thing.

Who was he to make that call?

You know, nowadays, hopefully,

I would hope that morgues

Are run in a better fashion,

That people can't steal

the brain.

- The rest of einstein

was cremated.

That's not in the will,

but he was cremated.

No one knows

where his ashes are.

Some people feel

they were scattered near

the crematorium in ewing.

Other people felt that they

scattered them on lake carnegie,

Where einstein liked to sail

a bit, but no one really knows.

Harvey kept the brain.

(laughing)

- People called it the heist

of the century.

I mean, that was always

one of the crazier aspects

of this story.

I mean, when they were

collecting einstein's papers

And works after his death,

There were armed guards,

like, escorting his work

To the hebrew university

where the archives are,

And yet his brain somehow ended

up going right off the grid!

(soft music)

I think that when tom first took

the brain into his possession,

He was reading constantly

about normal brains

And what they looked like,

and how best to preserve them.

- The first thing was

to preserve the tissue,

One with formaldehyde

put through the great blood

vessels of the brain,

And then you put it in a jar

full of formaldehyde to...

This is double fixation.

This is what you want to do

With specimens to reduce

artefacts so you get the most...

The best slides.

And then once they were

in the plastic stuff

That you put the blocks in,

Then you could put them

in a microtome.

(whirring)

Think of like how

you slice cold cuts,

You know, those

at the grocery store?

Well, you got a fancier one

for that, a very special one

That only a few people

knew how to do it.

- After he had sectioned

the brain into, you know,

240 pieces or so,

And after he had boxes of slides

made of the brain tissue,

He went about distributing

the brain out on a road trip

Along the highway

to different scientists.

(jazzy music)

It was in an effort to try

to get somebody interested

In actually studying the brain.

But everybody was busy,

and tom didn't have any money.

Who was going to study

einstein's brain for free?

As it turned out,

not many people.

I think a lot of the researchers

who were interested

In getting pieces

of the brain from harvey

Were interested,

not simply because they were

Really interested in finding

the source of intelligence,

But because it was

einstein's brain.

They were, in many ways,

seduced by the allure

Of the fame of the man himself,

The proximity to genius.

(calling out)

- Harvey was invited down

To the armed forced institute

of pathology,

Which was kind of just

an incredible aggregation

of experts,

In terms of any type of

pathology, but brain pathology,

They had special experts.

- And chief among them

was the head of neuropathology

For the us army, a fellow

by the name of webb haymaker.

- Haymaker was quite a guy.

He was a chain-smoking

pathologist, wrote a bunch

Of books, he supposedly

looked at mussolini's brain

And robert ley's brain,

who was a n*zi criminal.

He was kind of

a hard-bitten guy,

And he was trying to get harvey.

He says, "well, you are going

to leave the brain

With us, dr. Harvey."

And harvey, I think,

probably had anticipated that,

'cause he didn't bring

the brain with him.

- He had never any intention

of turning the brain

Over to the us military,

Which is interesting because

he really thought, on one hand,

It was because he had made

the personal promise

to einstein's family

And they had given him

the permission to keep it,

Not to turn it over

to anyone else,

And also as a pacifist

and knowing that also

einstein was a pacifist,

He didn't want to see the brain

in the hands of the army.

That was another motivating

factor for him to hold on to it.

- I mean, this is a labor of

love. This is off the clock.

This guy's got a full-time job.

"does my patient have kidney

cancer, dr. Harvey?"

And he would deal with that,

but on the weekends,

He would do this.

- He really thought

that if he devoted himself

To einstein's brain in this way

that it would put him in,

At last, the higher

annals of science.

The irony was that after

taking this brain

And making this promise,

His personal life sort of

started to unravel.

After tom harvey took the brain,

He became a bit

of a local celebrity, right?

The rumor was that tom ended up

having an affair

With somebody at the hospital,

a lab technician or a nurse.

And apparently,

this word got out

And tom's wife

heard about it.

She was livid. And so,

she went to jack kaufmann

Who was the president

of the hospital,

The one really happy that they

had einstein's brain,

And she went in

and she told him, "hey!"

Apparently, lost her temper

and said,

"what kind of place

are you running here?

Do you know this is happening?"

- They broke up, they got back

together, they broke up again.

(chuckling)

I don't know how many times

That happened, I think it

might've happened a third time,

Which was when my mother

finally gave him a divorce.

- No one really knows

why he quit his position

At princeton medical center.

You know, maybe his marriage

was going south,

He had a number

of relationships in his life,

But he quit the job or...

Did he get pushed a bit because

of the einstein publicity?

No one really knows.

- Was he fired? Did he quit?

He certainly, sometime late

in the 60s, resigned.

And einstein's brain

went with him.

- Well, when he and my mom met

and they were just dating,

My earliest literal memory

was calling him uncle tom.

(laughing)

But we started calling him

"dad" immediately.

He is the only dad

I've ever known.

The only dad I've ever known.

- All I remember is always

knowing that he did

The autopsy on albert einstein.

I knew he was a pathologist,

And I'm sure when I was really

young I'm like, I don't know,

"what's a pathologist?

What's an autopsy?"

- They met in princeton.

I know they met in princeton.

They did so many things

together. They both loved

Sailing, they loved

the outdoors.

They both literally

loved the outdoors.

- Well, my dad was

a little character.

His personality, you know,

Because he was kind of

a quiet man, you know?

And wasn't a loud, boisterous,

flamboyant... But quietly.

Quietly, like, with no words,

mowing the lawn in lederhosen.

You know, just entertaining

his guests with his kilt on.

You know, just quietly doing it,

Not bringing any other attention

than it was already bringing.

- My dad had a pair

of leather lederhosen.

And whenever he had those on,

It was the day we had to be

cleaning the yard.

(laughing)

He mowed the lawn

in his lederhosen

With the socks

and the suspenders

And the little ivory thing

and the whole...

(laughing)

He played the banjo

and he played the accordion.

- He had his office

in the basement

In the very back

left corner,

And you know, one of those big,

wooden desks,

And bookshelves with

loads of books,

And he had the brain there.

(eerie music)

- And I happened to see this jar

with a brain in it.

And I asked what it was,

and he told me,

But we weren't allowed

to talk about it.

We were not allowed

to talk about it.

- Well, yeah, I'm the one

who wanted like,

"can I bring it

into school?"

And you know,

but it was like, "no."

And any time I had a friend

over, "come on, let me show you

Where the brain is!"

And we'd go down the stairs

And into the back room,

and there it is!

(birds chirping)

- In 1975, we moved to kansas.

Now, living in new jersey

and moving to wichita,

Which all we ever heard about

was dodge city,

Cowboys and indians,

and we literally thought,

"we're gonna be the only people

In the state of kansas

with a car."

And I'm not kidding,

that's what we thought.

- And it was hard, because then,

You know, all our real close

friends were in new jersey.

And I don't think it affected

my younger sisters,

They were young. But...

I just know that

that's hard on kids.

And also to pull my mom away

from all her friends and family,

You know, just where we grew up.

- It was different.

It was different.

'cause my parents,

their marriage ended there,

So that was hard. Really hard.

- Every time tom moves,

otto nathan,

Einstein's executor

tracks him down,

And he keeps writing tom

these impatient letters,

Basically begging him

for an update

On what's happening

with the study of his great

friend's brain.

- It's a little bit of,

what I would call,

An asymmetric correspondence,

Because it's overwhelmingly

nathan pleading with harvey

To do something with that brain.

- Dear dr. Harvey...

- Some 23 years past

since einstein's death,

And there was a particular

editor who assigned

A young reporter by the name

of steven levy

To go in search

of einstein's brain,

And this actually would set off

What became

the recurring pattern.

So, somebody in the media

would say,

"hey, whatever happened

to einstein's brain?

We should find out."

- And one day, my editor,

He was a pretty new editor

who would come from new york,

Told me, "I want you to find

einstein's brain."

It was a crazy assignment.

Einstein's brain is missing?

I hadn't heard anything

about that.

(phone ringing)

And my editor told me,

"by the way, I want to use this

For the August cover story."

Which only gave me a few weeks

to find einstein's brain,

Something no one had done

in more than 20 years.

First point of contact was

dr. Otto nathan,

Who was the executor

of the einstein estate.

And he gave me no help.

He was aggressively

not interested

In following up on this.

The new york times article

had said the brain had been

Removed from the body

by dr. Thomas harvey.

And you know, there was no way

to google him back then in 1978,

But there were ways to look

people up, and eventually,

I realized that since

he was a physician, an md,

The american medical association

Might know where he is

or who he was.

(steven): I want you to find

this guy, dr. Thomas harvey...

And I called them up,

their office was in chicago.

And I talked some very nice

woman there into telling me,

You know, the numbers

of any dr. Thomas harvey.

There was a dr. Thomas s.

Harvey, I knew his middle name,

And she said there's one

in wichita, kansas.

I arrived in wichita.

By the time I got there,

there was a torrential rain,

And the taxi cab is driving

and bumping around

And going through giant puddles

the size of b*mb craters.

And I arrive

at this medical lab.

And I had been under the

impression that it would be

Some sort of research lab

with state-of-the-art equipment

And people going around

And doing advanced

scientific research,

But it was the kind of lab

you'd go to get a blood test.

And dr. Harvey greeted me

at the door.

I think we both were

a little nervous,

And took me back through the lab

to his office,

Which was sort of a glass

enclosure towards the back

of the building,

And we sat in his office

and began to talk.

He was definitely nervous about

talking about this and feeling,

You know, almost as if there

had been some other ear

In the room that was listening

With a voice saying,

"no, no, no, no,

You shouldn't be

talking about this."

And I'm listening to this

and taking it in.

I'm realizing I'm hearing things

that haven't been said

For over 20 years,

But on the other hand

I'm wondering,

"where's the brain?"

so I keep pressing him on this,

And finally. I get frustrated

and say, "don't you even have

Like a photograph

of einstein's brain?

Anything I could look at?"

'cause I'm thinking

My whole mission

might be going to naught.

He said, "well, I do have some

of the gross matter here."

What?

So, I better describe

what this room was like.

I'm sitting in a chair

and behind me are some

cardboard boxes,

And there's kind of like

a red cooler off to the side.

So he gets up from his desk

without a word

And walks, kind of like cuts

in front of me,

Kind of where the cooler is,

and I'm wondering,

Is einstein's brain

in a beer cooler?!

But no, he keeps walking and

he goes to the cardboard box

Behind me. I look at it

and it has a legend on the box.

"costa cider."

And there's like stuff inside

And he goes up and there's

kind of yellowed masking tape

Around the thing and he said,

"well, this is the cerebellum,

And these are aortic vessels."

And I'm looking at it. It's

definitely brain-like stuff,

And it is einstein's brain.

I'm looking at it right then!

And before I could even

collect myself, he goes

And gets this other jar,

and there's these things,

They look like goldenberg's

peanut chews,

Which are these candies

in the philadelphia area,

maybe about this big.

And he said, "well,

these are the sectioned parts

Of the brain." and each one

was labelled with a number

That described where it was

in his brain.

And there it was!

Einstein's brain!

(ominous music)

So, at first, I was stunned

that it was really there,

My mission was accomplished.

And then I realized that...

Why people were so fascinated

with this, because there it was,

The physical... Source

Of these theories

and discoveries

That literally changed

our world.

You know, changed the way

we perceive the world,

The universe. And there was

sort of a magic to it.

(whirring)

The story was our August cover.

And it caught fire.

This was pre-internet,

but at the time,

Things could get picked up,

You know, in a pony express

kind of way.

And you know, I spent

two days doing one radio

Interview after another.

- And now, ladies and gentlemen

Here's...

Johnny!

(cheering)

- The apex was, johnny carson

Made a joke about it.

- Now, here's an unusual item,

I hope it doesn't turn you off

Because it's kind of

a scientific item,

But portions of albert

einstein's brain

Have turned up in a laboratory

in wichita, kansas.

Remains were found

in a jar there...

(brief applause)

(laughing)

What really convinced

The scientists

in wichita, kansas,

That it was einstein's brain,

One morning,

they came into the lab,

And they saw the brain checking

the greyhound schedule bus

Leaving wichita.

So they figured it was einstein.

(laughing)

- I was watching

the johnny carson show.

And he made reference to, um...

Einstein's brain

Getting off a greyhound bus.

In wichita, kansas.

(chuckling)

And of course, you know,

it was just like...

Oh my gosh,

they followed us here.

- Now, I shared the story

with him,

On the eve of publication.

And I send him

the advance copy as well.

He was okay with the story.

He felt it was fine.

But then, the story came out,

The news hit,

The einstein estate was unhappy,

And there were people camped out

on his lawn wanting interviews.

And his life was changed...

Dramatically,

because of that story,

Because the secret

being public.

He wasn't too happy.

And from that moment on,

He was the person who had

einstein's brain.

Even worse, he was the person

who had einstein's brain

Who had a lot of questions

to answer about it.

(typewriter clacking)

- Dear dr. Harvey,

I'm writing you to renew our

acquaintance of almost 27 years,

But also to inquire about your

present intention to describe

And publish your work

on einstein's brain.

- It's like this homework

assignment,

One of those nightmares

you have.

You have this long-standing,

important assignment

That you haven't completed.

For decades, this poor man

Had not been able to complete

his assignment.

- So, steve levy

writes his article

And it makes a big splash.

And you know, it seemed like

The whole world had forgotten

about einstein's brain.

And science, which is one of

the leading science journals,

In the world, actually,

and based in the united states,

They actually feature a picture

from levy's article

Of the brain in the cider box.

And someone in the lab

of marian diamond at berkeley

Cuts it out and pins it up on

the bulletin board in the lab.

And marian diamond is this,

you know, dynamo maverick,

Brain researcher, at the time,

Who was really

ahead of her time.

She was doing all kinds

of studies proving

That we are born with a brain,

But that the brain can change,

depending on our environment.

She was showing that there was

a kind of brain cell

Called the glial cell,

Which is like a nursemaid

to neurons,

And the more of them you have,

the better your neurons work.

So this is how a brain

could grow.

So she's doing

this kind of work,

And it's in this environment

that she looks over

At her bulletin board

and she sees this picture

From the magazine

Of einstein's brain

in a cider box.

And she think, "hmm, I wonder

how many glial cells he had."

And she thinks,

"okay, how do I get that?"

And this then takes her

onto the rabbit chase

Of finding tom harvey.

(crickets chirping)

(train honking in the distance)

(soft music)

- He always wanted to be

a family doctor.

But he was a pathologist

his whole life.

So here he was in his 70s,

Becoming a family doctor

for the first time.

Everybody called him "doc".

If somebody didn't have money

to be treated,

He treated them anyway.

If they'd bake him a loaf

of bread, and we were even.

He made house calls.

He was "that" person.

He genuinely cares about people.

- When I first met

dr. Tom harvey,

The first week I worked for him,

The telephone rang.

The man on the other line said,

"could I speak to

dr. Thomas harvey?"

And I said, "who's calling,

please?"

And he said, "david hartman

from good morning america."

Young girl in her 20s,

I got really excited.

Jumped up,

ran to doctor's office.

He said, "oh, you take care

of it.

And don't tell him anything."

We were busy. We were busy

Taking care of everyday life,

for people.

Keeping them healthy,

Treating emergencies,

making house calls.

I think he was really happy.

He loved what he was doing.

He did other things

in his life:

Working emergency rooms,

To try to support his family

and his lifestyle.

- As somebody who had gone

to medical school,

You know, in the '30s,

And then, had done a general

pathology residency, I mean,

Sure, you understand

what the heart does

And what the kidneys do,

but that's something else

If somebody comes in with

a urinary tract infection.

You haven't spent several years

Learning the ropes

of practicing medicine.

So he did that for a while.

- I guess there was

a complaint against him,

At the time, and he was

in his mid-70s.

And so, this complaint

results in a hearing,

And I think there's

a realization that,

"whoa, this doctor is like

in his mid-70s.

I think you better take your

state licensing exam again."

- He actually had to...

Sit for the boarding exams

somewhere in the midwest.

I don't know, at that point,

what is he? He's in his 80s?

And those exams

are very challenging.

And I think he came close,

But he couldn't get

relicensed for that.

- They said he diagnosed

them incorrectly.

And when...

And when he had to give

his license back...

Oh! The diagnosis was correct!

He did not misdiagnose anybody.

Just conclusions were jumped to.

And because that doctor

didn't agree with the way

He was being treated,

the diagnosis...

Automatically thought

it was wrong.

But it wasn't.

I wasn't there.

I don't remember exactly

what he gave this patient.

But it was the right treatment.

- As the story goes,

That's when otto nathan

writes harvey

And indignant letter saying,

"you've had the brain

for quite some time.

Why are you not publishing?"

So, clearly, the expectation

was harvey should keep the brain

For scholarly study,

And if anything, he was getting

berated for not doing enough.

- Tom harvey's getting a lot

of pressure from otto nathan

In the letters, saying, "hey!

I've seen this article

in new jersey monthly.

I'm really not so happy

That the brain

is in a costa cider box,

And it's being compared

to some kind of candy chews.

And what the heck?!

Like, where's

the study already?"

And so, what happens

is tom's like,

So delighted to hear

from marian diamond

Who's, you know,

this maverick researcher

That he immediately goes

to his jars

And fishes out four pieces

of einstein's brain,

And...

Puts them in a mayonnaise jar

and they arrive at berkeley.

Then, she begins this really,

really tedious study

Of counting the glial cells

einstein had per neuron,

Compared to average brains.

And she concludes that einstein

had more

Of these glial cells, generally,

than other people.

- So we had hypothesized,

if we were dealing

With one of the greatest brains

that's ever lived

That we should find more

glial cells per neuron.

And that's essentially

what we did find.

- In fact, dr. Diamond

found 73% more glial cells

Than average.

- Of course, you know,

she's not got a lot of genius

Brains for comparison,

And she publishes this

in a friend's journal

Because she's wanting

to give her friend a boost,

And it was called

experimental neurology.

So it comes out in the 1980s.

And you know, she's really

hopeful that it will be, um,

You know, something

that will help bring

More attention to her work

and that it would boost

The journal and so on...

And instead, it's met with

some pretty fierce criticism.

And in fact, a lot of people

used her study as an example

Of not good science,

of bad science.

There was one researcher

who even used to post

A slide in his powerpoints

as a kind of joke

To break the ice.

So came the very first

sort of public suggestions

That scientists who were

interested in studying

This brain were more seduced

by the idea of celebrity,

Less by the idea

of doing serious science.

- Some of them were interested

for purely scientific reasons.

And they had valid...

Issues about whether

they could continue with...

A certain line

of research or not.

But still fascinates people...

(scoffs)

...On multiple levels, you know.

And...

I don't know.

I guess...

Even if they had

some of the brain,

You know, what can you

ascertain from one sample?

How important could that be?

- When he was in weston,

he was married to rachelle.

That was his third wife.

But he worked almost 24-7.

He would leave the clinic

and go to ers to work.

He worked at the prison,

He just... That was his life,

was to work.

So I imagine it was

a lonely life for her.

I later found out

that they divorced,

After he lost his license.

- When I met tom, he was

working second shift at e & e.

It's kind of inherently

dangerous work.

During the time I worked

at e & e,

I watched a young woman

cut her index finger off.

I was 20 feet away when actually

a very good friend of mine

Used a radial saw and kind of

Sliced down the middle

of his finger this way.

I mean, there...

Yes, there were plenty

Of accidents all the time.

(soft music)

- By the time tom is, you know,

at an age when most people

Would be thinking

about retiring

And putting their feet up

and so on,

He is, you know,

Working flat out

at a plastics factory.

- He was working on the back

of a machine called an extruder.

An extruder is kind of like

a play-doh hair factory.

I don't know if you had one

of those when you were a kid,

But you cram all

the play-doh in here,

And then you use this lever

and you crank down on it

And it comes out over here.

You can make it

into certain shapes.

You can put the star

attachment on

And it comes out

as a cross-sectional star,

Or a tube, or whatever

you wanna do.

That's essentially

what an extruder is.

And so, tom's job was, he was

on the back-end of the thing

Taking off this long extrusion

and cutting it to size.

So for 8 to 10 hours a day,

Tom would pull a part off

the extruder,

Wait for an a*t*matic saw

to cut it roughly,

And then, he would put it

in a jig and use a radial saw,

Cut one in,

put it in the other end,

And cut the other end.

Can you believe that?

Tom was a little bit

of a misfit, initially.

Eventually, tom became

very well liked.

Every month, we would pick

an employee of the month.

And I couldn't even begin

To tell you what month

or what year it was,

But tom was selected

as an employee of the month.

And it was a pretty big deal.

You got a parking spot

Right out in front

of the building

And you got like a plaque,

and then there was a thing

In the break room

that your name went on for,

You know, perpetuity,

or at least until the company

Goes out of business.

(applause)

- Well, I was a poor

phd student.

And it struck me that he was

a man of moderate means as well.

That seemed like

a perfect match.

And before we knew it,

we had moved in.

He moved in these enormous

wooden shelves, bookshelves,

And filled the dining room wall

with bookshelves.

And what followed

soon afterwards

Were piles of books and papers,

and a mysterious jar.

And then, it all came out.

And I suddenly realized

that I was probably

One of the very few physics

students in history

That were living with

the god of physics' brain.

It did suddenly appear one day

on the dining room table.

And he would sit there

with the jar

Right next to his breakfast.

Like, can't imagine anybody

Would dream of such thing

in their wildest dreams.

(soft music)

- As quakers, we tried

to be sort of quiet.

I thought of tom as just

this quiet elderly man

Who rode a bicycle

and who was kind and...

Pleasant to be around,

quiet, he didn't say much.

So I was... I was really

surprised, as time went on,

When I found out more

about his past.

- We often had parties together

and he was a real party animal.

He was a lot of fun.

He could mix with any age group.

He could mix with

any social class.

He was a real quaker

in that respect,

And he brought it to the party.

Nothing like a quaker

at a party.

He could drink people

under the table.

He could laugh

and joke with anyone.

He was fabulous to have around.

- Tom did seem a bit

mysterious to me.

Here was this older man

who rode a bicycle

And worked at a plastics plant

Who'd been a chief pathologist

at princeton hospital.

And it kind of didn't

seem to fit real well.

And then, I learned that

not only had he done

The autopsy on einstein,

But that he possessed

einstein's brain.

- I did not understand

how that...

How having a dissected brain

Could further our

understanding of brains.

So as a scientist,

I struggled to understand

How having one sample

could lead you

To a theory of...

The brain.

- When I saw the brain,

I was sort of unimpressed

Because, again, I was expecting

to see the whole brain.

And I just saw this little

piece of it.

And so, it was like,

oh, it was not quite

As impressive as I expected.

I don't know what I was

expecting, actually.

I guess when you think

of einstein's brain,

You think of something

really marvelous,

Like you've never seen before.

And it was just like a specimen

in a specimen jar.

- One of the things that

everybody loved about tom,

The guy never missed work.

I mean, never missed work.

So...

One day, I got a call

telling me that tom

Was not going to be

at work that day.

And I was told that he was

in a bicycle accident.

He was hit, while on his bike,

was hit by a car

That was driven

by a woman who...

Oh, by the way, at the time,

he was 79 or 80.

And she was one year older

than tom,

If you can imagine that.

So I've always kind of suspected

That if guinness book

of world records

Ever had a category

for "bike v. Car

Accident combined age,"

There's not doubt in my mind

that they would be

In the running for that one.

When tom did come back

to the line

After the bicycle accident,

I don't think I ever saw him

move without pain,

In the same way that I did

before the accident.

He lost a little bit

of strength,

And he was noticeably

less agile.

I think he always moved

really well, um...

And I think he just couldn't be

quite as pain-free after that.

- Whenever he came back

from the factory,

He was clearly exhausted.

He was ashen with just...

You know, mind-numbing

exhaustion.

And it broke my heart

to see somebody of his age,

And of his incredible abilities,

Working away

at this kind of work.

- He could have somehow

profited personally

From his role as the keeper

of einstein's brain,

But he never did.

So he would turn down

Big money offer interviews

from various media and tv shows.

And yet, he would show

the brain to, you know,

Sort of the rotary club members

or high school students

Or, you know, fellow quakers.

Or he wouldn't sell the brain.

He had offer, you know.

People wanted to buy the brain,

and so on.

But he would instead work like,

three, four, five jobs

To make ends meet before

he thought about, you know,

Taking any money for the brain.

But at the same time,

he got so busy living

That einstein's brain was this

thing on his to-do list

That slipped further and further

down the list.

(indistinct pa announcement)

- Long trip from japan, huh?

- Yeah.

- Very long.

So what is the purpose

of your visit here?

- I'm looking for

einstein's brain.

- Okay.

- A couple years later,

there was a documentary

That some guy did.

- Dr. Harvey's house

Is just on the other side

of the creek.

- This physicist from japan

Was really very interested

in einstein.

And harvey clearly liked him.

It was in kansas.

- Oh! Wow!

(chuckling)

(clears throat)

oh!

- His brain has been sectioned.

- Oh!

- Cut into many pieces.

As you see.

(speaking in japanese)

- Possible please give me...

From photo, one piece

of einstein's brain?

(laughing)

- And he says, "could I have

a piece of the brain?"

And harvey...

(laughing)

Harvey grabs

his mayonnaise jars

And cuts off a little bit

of the cerebellum

With a kitchen knife.

I know he had a better knife.

I think he had

a pathology knife.

And gave him a bit.

- Let me get this knife and...

Cutting board.

(speaking in japanese)

Okay...

- And slowly, it took on

some circus-like aspects

That were exactly

the nightmare...

- This is brain stem

and cerebellum.

- ...That the einstein estate,

And einstein himself I guess,

Would never want to see.

- Oh, thank you for this, sir.

- You're welcome.

(moaning)

- Later on, it took on,

you know, kind of crazy aspects,

Maybe culminating in this one

trip some guy wrote a book about

Going cross-country

with einstein's brain.

(rock music)

I think it's driving mr. Albert

by paterniti

Which was a great read,

But it really didn't do

Anything great

for thomas harvey.

Paterniti, you know,

went cross-country with a brain,

With harvey and sort of

portrayed him as,

I don't even know

how he portrayed him.

He got down to wichita

and he introduced him

To william burroughs

of naked lunch fame.

And william burroughs...

Harvey, who was this very,

to me,

Scholarly quaker quiet guy,

And burroughs is saying,

"what's your addiction, doctor?"

So that's in the book,

and... I mean,

Those kind of things which make

for a very diverting reading,

I don't think the family

was terribly thrilled with it.

- And dr. Harvey, at that point,

Didn't seem really in possession

of his own story,

But was just going with it.

Maybe at that point

he just should've given it

To a research institution

and passed it on

Instead of having

the brain loose out there

And not under, you know,

The protection

of a scientific institute.

And you know...

Less of a spectacle.

- Tom was quite unfairly

portrayed in some media.

I think there was the element

of the sort of freak show

About tom and his possession

of the brain.

By and large, journalists

did not bother to find out

That aspect.

They immediately latched onto

The circus element of it all.

And almost abused it,

in a way.

And marketed it

as a brand.

(soft music)

- Einstein has a bobble head.

There's been lots of movies

about einstein.

People have posters of einstein

in their room.

I remember watching

a spiderman movie.

And in the spiderman movie,

There's a poster of einstein

on peter parker's wall.

One of the reasons is because,

a: He personifies genius.

And I think everybody,

across race, religion, culture,

Republican, democrat,

right, left, old, young.

It doesn't matter.

Everybody knows who einstein is.

(clucking)

I live in the appalachian

mountains,

And you know, I wake up

in the morning

And get eggs from my chickens

and then I boot up my computer,

And to the world I am

the digital avatar

Of albert einstein.

It's pretty bananas.

Believe it or not,

einstein is one of the few

Dead celebrities who has

a presence on social media.

And he has 20 million followers

On facebook,

instagram and twitter.

More than most living

celebrities.

More than tom hanks,

more than jennifer aniston.

And... Yeah!

I get all sorts of interesting

people try to direct message me

On social media.

I get teenagers in india

Message me for help

with their math homework.

I get physicists in florida

Who want to show me their new

scientific research paper.

As if I can weigh in on it

in any meaningful way.

Well, I think you're missing

a comma over there.

Or I think that equation

is off.

I don't know what

they're thinking.

Maybe they just want a response,

a pat on the...

A virtual, digital

pat on the shoulder

For their good work.

One of the first things I posted

When I took over the albert

einstein social media account

Was the story about

thomas harvey

Stealing einstein's brain

in the morgue.

And it got one of the worst

Results ever on einstein's

social media.

People did not want to hear it.

These were fans who look up

to einstein,

He's a beloved character,

He's enshrined in their mind

as this perfect totem of genius,

And...

To hear the story

of thomas harvey

Violently taking the brain,

And the brain, and what it

represents for einstein.

It's not like he took

einstein's ear

Or a lock einstein's hair.

Einstein's brain

is what he's famous for.

And this guy cracked open

his head,

Grabbed the brain

and stole it.

And when... Think about it.

Like, I wasn't thinking

when I posted it...

Here's a fan page

for albert einstein

With 20 million people

who love albert einstein.

I should've known better

how they were gonna respond.

It didn't get that many likes,

It got all these

negative comments.

"what are you doing?

We don't wanna hear about this."

Even the einstein archives

themselves were like,

"could you please not post

about thomas harvey so much?"

It's one of the few blemishes

on einstein's legacy.

- I got the impression that

he was profoundly embarrassed

That he had not

produced the study.

He had sent it to many,

many people.

And one could argue

that at a certain point

He owed it to

the einstein family,

To the public,

maybe to einstein himself,

To come up with what

he had at that moment.

And then, maybe throw it open

for other scientists.

- There was a canadian

researcher, sandra witelson,

Who had a very large collection

of normal brains,

Which is, you know,

highly unusual

And very precious

in brain research.

And so, one day, she received

a one-page fax

That came out of the blue

into her office

That simply said,

"would you like to study

The brain of albert einstein?"

(soft music)

Tom told me this story

Of having packed the brain

into the trunk of his dodge.

And driving up to canada

And crossing at niagara falls

at midnight.

And trying to declare

The brain of albert einstein

at customs.

(laughing)

and the customs officers

Had said, you know,

"do you have anything

to declare?"

He tells them what he has.

I suspect they did not

believe him

Because he said they didn't ask

to see it or anything.

So...

(laughing)

He just drove straight through

And he delivered a certain

portion of the brain

To sandra witelson in hamilton.

You know, she describes

holding it in her hands

And feeling a sense of awe.

You know, you think scientists

are somehow immune

To the kind of mystical

hocus-pocus

That goes around

when we think about

The body parts of famous people,

But they're not.

And I think that that's one

Of the interesting things

about science,

Is that it tries

to be objective,

It tries to transcend all

of the other foibles

That mark the human condition.

But it can never

because it's driven by people.

And we are all flawed.

- She wrote this paper

about the exceptional brain

Of albert einstein.

And, I'm gonna do her

a disservice,

But say that she really focused

on the parietal lobe,

Albert einstein's parietal lobe

Which, when she studied

the photographs,

She found anatomical anomalies.

- Neuroscientist sandra witelson

Has just finished peering

into one of the greatest minds

Of the 20th century.

- The width of the brain,

from left to right,

Was larger by 15 percent,

in einstein's brain,

Compared to the control group.

- I remember her describing it

at the time

And saying, to her,

it was as obvious

As seeing eyebrows misplaced

on the face.

And that's how different

this one particular fissure

In einstein's brain was.

And it so happens that

the regions of the brain

That this fissure separates

generally in people

Are involved in mathematical

and visual, spatial reasoning,

Which really correlates

to the way einstein

Used to think,

or describe his thinking,

Which he said, he didn't think

in terms of numbers.

It wasn't math

that he envisioned

When he conducted

his thought experiments,

But rather he would actually

see himself,

Be able to imagine himself

riding on a beam of light.

So, you know, when sandra

witelson completed her study,

She said, you know,

maybe this explains

Why he thought in images,

Why he had such

a fertile lab for a mind.

She felt that she had located,

to some extent,

The source of what made

his mind so extraordinary.

Then, after witelson's study,

Fred lepore and his research

partner dean falk,

Came out with a big study

of their own.

And I think tom would've felt

vindicated for all the years

He kept the brain.

- Witelson just stopped

at the parietal lobe.

But we found every lobe:

Frontal lobe, parietal lobe,

Occipital lobe,

cingulate lobe...

Everything was different.

That is not standard issue,

That frontal lobe.

(laughing)

- So one more makes a big

difference, okay, got it.

- Extraordinary,

never-before-seen pictures

Of albert einstein's brain

have just been revealed

And they could provide clues

about how he came to be

One of the greatest geniuses

of all-time.

- And now, people can study

his brain in detail

Through modern technology.

There's an ipad app which has

detailed three-dimensional

Images of einstein's brain.

- I wanna see that.

(birds chirping)

(soft music)

- I mean, he was no hero.

But I don't think he did

anything with evil intentions.

- I'm sure he had regrets,

we all have regrets.

But he was always

about doing the right thing.

- I think history

has been unfair to him.

He wanted to be thought

of as a scientist.

- He didn't want to use

the brain for fame's sake.

But he did hope that by doing

right by the brain,

It would make him famous

in a scientific sense.

He did not leave this earth

a wealthy man.

But he left this earth

with his integrity

And knowing he always did

the best he could for people.

- I think it cost him a lot.

Would that same sequence

of events,

Would he've had

marriages that'd go south

Without einstein's brain,

Would they have kindly

inclined to him as a part

Of the medical center

of princeton?

We're never gonna know.

- I got interested

in albert einstein

Because I was in college

reading a book

That was like, "oh, my god,

Somebody stole

einstein's brain."

And that story itself,

if that story gets people

Interested in albert einstein,

there's something positive

To be said about that.

- Do we know where

the brain is now?

- No. No, you don't.

And you're not gonna find out.

If you call medical centre

in princeton, they say,

"well, that's under

the care of dr. X."

I don't blame dr. X about being

concerned about publicity.

- These are the original jars

that dr. Harvey

Placed all the brain parts

in back in 1955

When he did the autopsy

and dissected the brain.

It is a heavy responsibility.

Dr. Harvey understood that.

He carried it with him

for most of his adult life.

And after he ceded the brain,

I think he was somewhat relieved

Not to have to worry

about it anymore,

That someone else was taking

over the helm,

That the person who was

taking it over

Had sufficient respect

for this material.

It was never meant

to be a museum piece.

It was never meant to sit

on a shelf

For people to gawk at.

It was to be used

for scientific purposes.

And I think that,

At least as far as we have been

able to go with the science,

We've kept true to that spirit.

Hopefully, in the future,

We'll be able to do

more with it.

It sounds silly to have

a heavy responsibility,

But it is einstein's brain.

It's not nothing.

It is einstein's brain.

(soft music)